Islamabad: A Christian family flees amid blasphemy accusations and fear of reprisal

A Pakistani Christian family flees from home owing to blasphemy accusations and fear of reprisal from the Muslims.

According to details, a Pakistani Christian woman namely Sehrish ( her real name withheld) landed into trouble when she argued with her Muslim neighbour about an anti-Muslim video clip.

Sehrish said, she fell afoul of her Muslim neighbour when she got engaged in a heated argument with the neighbour over a controversial clip. “During a heated argument, he accused me of not respecting their religion. I accidentally shared about a recent Facebook video against the Prophet Muhammad arguing that we Pakistani Christians respect Muslims more than the rest of the world,” she said. She further told that she owes this neighbour about 12,000 Rupees.

After she was accused by her neighbour, the news spread swiftly in the neighbourhood. Soon Sehrish’s husband, was summoned by the influential Muslims of the neighbourhood. He said that he was warned that if he converted to Islam, no harm would be done to him or his family. Otherwise, he and his family would have to quit living in Islamabad.

The Christian man daringly refused to convert to Islam. Owing to the looming reprisal from the local Muslims, the Christian family chose to flee home and have taken refuge in an unknown location.

“I have been living in Islamabad for eight years after my marriage. But we only had our clothes when we left. Is this justice? Did we deserve this punishment?” Sherish asked in disbelief. She is a mother of three while her husband worked as a tailor in the neighbourhood.

This is not a new case of its kind. Christians have been repeatedly trapped in blasphemy laws. This Christian family is the new among the victims of country’s infamous blasphemy laws. There are cases, when Christians were merely accused of blasphemy which was followed by irate retaliation. These are highly sensitive cases which are used exclusively to settle disputes with Christians.